Atlantian Chronicles II: Winter in July
by Wolfa Moon
Summary: Kera sheds some more light onto her past and opens some more. PLEASE R


ATLANTIAN CHRONICLES II: WINTER IN JULY

BY: Wolfa Moon

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~ PRESENT, HER APARTMENT~

Kera lay out on her bed. She had excused herself from a dinner date with Methos. Kera hasn't eaten in centuries. With all the new trends she had to fit in. _So drinking only fluids for so long gives you a great body_, she told herself as she felt her flat stomach. Than she laughed at the thought. With a jolt she remembered who started it on her.

~229 AD, ROME MARKET~

She was chained up to one of the spokes in the market. Admit she wasn't that beautiful, she told herself. The seller was selling her as a housemaid. Living a life of luxury than one day raiders and down to this. By the gods she hated this. Well she hasn't been a slave in so long. And her appearance wasn't nice to look at. Kera's skin was tanish/pale. Senators would walk by examining the trade. _They would talk as only tools of joy or work what was the difference _she thought. A buzz filled the air. A man's hand lifted up her head.

"How about this one?" The man was about 34yrs old. And had black hair with pale skin with a very strong build. The seller came over and bowed.

"Senator Felepon, oh this one. You do not want this one. She is to, well not pleasant." With the last bit of strength she had left she kicked the seller in the leg. He fell down on his back. The man raised up and was about to hit her but the senator stopped him.

"How much?"

"But," the senator let go of his hand. "She is a recluse. She is not trained."

"She shows promise. How much?" The seller smiled.

"2 pieces of gold."

"How about one piece of gold? So I can take this tyrant off your hands." Kera listened but got lost in her thoughts. She had servants not slaves. She had been a slave before back in the day for about only 30 years but that was it. She never had much in doing to be a slave. She would get herself killed and be out of there. And after that ordeal never again would she do anything wrong to a slave. Now again she was one.

"Fine." He undid the chain and held it to him. The senator handed him the money and took the chain.

"Come on." He pulled her after him. 

When they reached the house. She look at it's splendor, but keep her eyes down as she knew she was suppose to do. _A house ruled by an immortal. Just my luck. Thank the gods for small favors,_ she thought. He dropped the chains and left her in the middle of the room. He dropped off his outer cloak to the floor. She looked at it than to him. He picked up a glass.

"Pick it up." She walked over and picked it up. He held a sword to her neck as she began to rise. She froze_. Oh no. He can't sense me. What is this devil up to?_ The sword lifted. She stood up and looked into his eyes. He gave her a smile. "You show promise. As you have noticed I don't have that many slaves. That is because I don't believe in them." Kera looked the man over in question.

"Than what did you buy me for?" Kera looked down at the floor at the question. She knew that she wasn't suppose to talk back.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you. So what where you before this?"

"Lord?" _Get your demeanor right_, she keep telling yourself.

"You know since you're in the state of being wealthy. Look at yourself. You obliviously had money. So what happened, um, what is your name?"

"Tenasa. I was a lady of the court of Naplis in Germania." She held her head high. "My town was raided."

"Oh?" The man circled around her. Her eyes looked to the ground that straight back into his.

"So what are your plans?"

"My plans? How straight forward?"

"It is the way of knowing things in order to know how to proceed." She was taught in many ways. Even in how to get her way. But dealing with immortals was different. They could kill a mortal and think nothing of it. 

"Well, I'll be truthful. Since I need you to be with me." She looked him up and down. _What is this one up to?_ She looked him over.

"Sir, what is it you want?"

"Good. Down to business. You obliviously know the ways of high society so that is why I chose you."

"I thought I showed promise?" _Just kill me and let me get out of this place._ She set the cloak on a table.

"Yes, and I will tell you, soon. Have you ever been to Rome before?" _Yes, about when the landmass connected to the islands. _

"No." 

"Then that is perfect." She took a seat finally. He grabbed another glass and handed it to her. "I need you to play my god-daughter."

"Me? Why? You must have family?" _Yeah right like an immortal can reproduce._

"Well, I have no family and I can't have any." _Whoa this is a deal of different._ She took a drink of the wine. "So I bought you in order to say I did." He gave her smile. She looked up at him in question. Trying to put two and two together. "But in Rome we don't eat to be fat we eat to show entertainment, than we binge." 

"Disgusting."

"Yes," he gave a laugh. "And you need to learn." He got to business. He took the glass from her hand. "We will start with one meal a week."

"One meal?"

"Yes, and plenty of exercise." Kera looked for a way out. Always being around an unknown immortal would get anybody uneasy. Especially if your immortality is hidden.

"Oh, do I at least get something to drink?" She tried to focus her mind for the future.

"Of course, of course." He looked her up and down as if looking at a prize jewel.

"What is wrong?" He turned around than faced her. A smile came upon his face.

"Well, you are taking this so nicely."

"Well, let us see." She smiled. "It is this or a slave? Mmm, I think I got the better deal." He laughs.

"Yes, this will work out perfectly."

~HER APARTMENT~

She went to the fridge to see an Avon water bottle there. She pulled it out and opened it. Kera drank at it hungrily. Her godfather's quickening still hung on her. _She hated him and loved him._ Her thoughts are all in jumbles about what happened. _What he did? What she did? What he had done? Killing her friend. The _bottle was halfway empty. She looked down at it. _The day at the fountain popped into her head.. _Adamous, now Adam Pierson. 

~ EARLIER THAT MORNING, PARK~

"So do you want to go out to dinner?" Methos asked. He smiled at her. She had eaten on the plane. _One meal_. She stopped from their walk.

"I can't." She sounded sad he noticed. Linton her friend had just died and her he was asking this. Tenasa face popping into his head. _Her softness, her being against him, his love for her._

"Why?" Methos stepped toward her. She couldn't do this. It wasn't right. I know that he is thinking of then not now.

"I just.. Sorry Adam." She turned away from him and ran away.

~HER APARTMENT~

Kera threw the bottle across the room. She sank to the floor. Tears flowing from her eyes. Her life still ruled by the past. She had to grow up. The moonlight lit up the room. _Remember that we are all living in a way. We are just different. We hold a key. A key that is in us. Our life is a scroll, full of knowledge. Don't let it go to waste. You are young. Know what you have, and have fun. Enjoy life. _The words of her first mentor filled her head. He had raised her when she was a child. She remembered her homeland. The massiveness of it. Even bigger than all the greatness of Rome. Than the day when it fell filled her head and she awoke from her memory. She picked herself off the floor and walked to the bottle. Kera picked up the bottle and looked in the mirror. "Don't let life pass and fade right by you." Kera told her reflection. She set the bottle down and began to look through her closet.

~ JOE"S BAR~

Joe looked over at his friend. Methos sat there holding a full beer in his hand. He went over to him. Joe stood there like a professional barkeep. Cleaning one of the glasses in his hand.

"So she didn't go out with you? It's not the end of the world." He just nodded his head. "Maybe she's not your type?" Methos looked up at him finally.

"She's totally my type." He snapped in a stern voice. He feelings getting the best of him.

"Well than tell me old wise one, why is she not here with you?" Methos took a swig of his drink finally. _He had finally stumped the old smart one_. "Ah, nothing to say." Methos just looked down at the beer. He finally realized what his words have done. Joe was hurt by what he just said. "Sorry, man. She means a lot to you?"

"She did."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Methos set his head on the ledge of the bar.

"It means. " He looked up at his buddy. _How could I tell him? I knew her in another lifetime. _"Does she have any secrets?" Joe gave him a look than back.

"Of course." Methos had a smile of hope. "All people do."

"Well what are her's?" Joe set down the glass he was polishing.

"Methos, like she would tell me." He picked up another glass.

"Of course she would she trust you." Methos wanted to know. _Is she Tenasa? Is she the one?_

"Uh huh. Like you trust me."

"Ok, answer me this one question." Joe nodded. "Is she immortal?" Joe gave a laugh.

"What kind of idiotic question is that? You should be able to answer that better than me." Methos set the glass down.

"It's important."

"Don't you sense her?"

"No."

"Than there you go."

"Yeah, your right I should expect that." Methos downed the rest of his beer.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just bad memories." He got up from his stool. "Bye Joe." He walked away.

"Bye." Joe looked at the glass he was polishing. The lights glinted through it creating a prism.

~KERA'S APAERTMENT~

Sarah Brightman played from her boom box. Kera sat at her window looking through her telescope. She was an avid star charter since her youth. The stars were how you told your way home. She became attached to the stars since her homeland was destroyed. She looked up from her telescope. The stars twinkled to her. "Melton, what would you give now to be here." She asked up to the stars. Melton, her first mentor, her first head. "I can't believe you. Why did you choose me? WHY?" Looked away from the stars. "Like you can even hear me." She looked around her room. It was covered with old relics and new ones. She closed her eyes. "Why?" She asked the question more to a silent demon that was she than an actual human form. She opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. Oh, what the things they have done. Who they have killed? Who they have saved? Her mind was a library of knowledge, but. Kera looked to the stars. She hated to be alive sometime yet on other days loved it. A love, hate thing. "How I hate them Melton. How I hate this. You taught me to be strong. Now look at me. I'm nothing. I'm a dog without an owner." A prism shined in her eye. She grabbed the crystal that hanged from her blind. _Not everything is as it is. There will be a day, _Melton played in her head.

~97,987 BC, ATLANTIS~

A 12 year old Keratenasa walked with her teacher Melton amongst a giant waterfall shores. It was greater than Victoria Falls. The attire was like Ancient Greek with a slash of Medieval times in it. Melton looked down at his apprentice. His daughter for these years. His last hope. 

"There will be a day that I shall not be here."

"But immortals live forever."

"Yes, young one, but we can still be killed. We are not all fully immortal. We just don't die of mortal ways." She looked at him in question. "Oh, you will understand in time. Now," he raised a hand at the sight in front of them. "Look at the mixture the spray from the waterfall and sun make."

"A rainbow."

"Yes, but why?"

"The reflection."

"Yes, the sun refracts. And then you have a rainbow." He placed a hand on her young shoulder. "One day soon you will have to create a rainbow of your own. To shine out amongst the others. To chose the age of which you shall live the rest of your days."

"Forever and ever?"

"Or until someone takes your head." 

"And that will be never."

"You sound so sure. How do you intend to keep it?"

"Anyway I can." 

"Good. Fight with everything you have and when you have nothing left. Risk everything. Cause in that moment you could turn it around and you could win."

"And get what I earn."

"Yes." She smiled at him.

~KERA"S APARTMENT~  
She held the prism in the air. The moonlight refracted through the prism and creating little rainbows along the walls. 

"Be a rainbow. And if the sun will not refract you, get another source and shine for eternity." She looked out to the massive star field in the sky. "Goodnight father."

~NEXT MORNING, METHOS' APARTMENT~

The sun had rose only 3 hours ago and he was up for it. He slashed about him practicing his age old moves. He wore only a pair of pants in the cold weather. But when you practice you get hot. He did a few more slashes, parries, and jabs. Next he flipped the sword around so it was parallel with his arm. He swung around as if blocking attacks from his invisible opponent. Footsteps could be heard coming from behind him. He flipped the sword around and made a bow to the opponent. Than with a fluid motion whipped around. His sword stopped a few inches from Kera's throat. She stood there reacted in shock but was rather annoyed.

"Damn it Adam." He let the sword go to his side.

"Kera wasn't inspecting to see you."

"I gathered that. What are you doing?" Methos picked up a towel he had brought up with him.

"Practicing. We immortals have to keep in shape in order."

"To protect your precious head." Kera finished with sarcasm. "I do know how you guys fight." He looked up at her from the towel. She gave a half smile.

"So what brings you here?"

" I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" he sat down on the ledge of the building. His sword sat next to him.

"Well," she looked around the air. "For not going out to dinner with you."

"Alright. Apology taken." They smiled at each other.

"Is that an Ivanhoe sword?"

"Yes, you know swords?"

"A little. Can I?" She asked as he had once asked MacLeod than put it to his neck. But this was Kera. Someone he knew nothing about. He picked up the sword.

"Just don't cut off my head." She took the sword off of him.

"Which one?" She said with a devilish grin. Kera balanced it in the air. Methos sat watching her. "It feels nice."

"Do you know how to use a sword?"

"I know how to use a staff." _Amongst other things._

"That's good. Almost like that." She swung the sword from side to side. Methos came up beside her. "Well, than let me teach you."

"I would be honored." Methos cringed at her response. _Honor, her words, Tenasa words. _Methos took her arm and began to movement of slashes. Left down, right down, than again. "Adam?" He gave a Hmm answer. "I was wondering if we could go out to dinner tonight." He stopped moving her arm. It went to her side. She faced him. _He was truly a sight, get back to present strain of thought._ He looked at her. She wore a loose sweater and jeans.

"Well, I have to see if I'm busy. You know all those beheadings and such. I'll have to see if I can fit you in."

"Well, than, see if you can fit me in around 7 o'clock." She handed him back his sword. "Meet me at my place. It's on your machine." She walked over to the ladder to the roof and went down.

~KERA"S APARTMENT~

Methos knocked at the door. 

"In a minute." She called from inside. The door became unlocked and than opened. Methos looked at her. Her hair was up with some glitter here and there. Her skirt was a long black color with a red tank top. Methos was staring at her. So she reached up and straightened his tie. He jerked at the motion and caught her hand. She winced at the tightness.

"Sorry." He let go of her hand and noticed the infamous watcher tattoo. 

"It's okay." She looked at him. He was in a nice black suit. Hs tie was a nice hunter green. "So where are you going to take me?"

"A nice Italian restaurant, called Sorleni's" She picked up her purse.

"Let's go." He held out his arm and she took. 

"Let's go." They walked out of the house and went to the restaurant.

~METHOS APARTMENT~

Methos lay on his bed asleep. The night activities taking their toll on him. A night of dinner and dancing, what more could you ask for. The dancing was a little more enticing than it got to be when first suggested. Methos stirred in his bed. He dreams of last nights ordeals. The phone rang disturbing his humming of Lam Bada. It rang again and he waved his hand at the sound. It rang again. Methos hand hit the speaker button. He let out a groan to the phone to let them know he was there.

"Methos? Methos?" Methos recognized the voice of the over-grown boy scout.

"Hello MacLeod." He answered drearily. 

"Oh good your there. Joe said you had a busy night last night, so he didn't know if.."

"What is it?" He said in a grouchy tone. _Why couldn't he just get to the damn point? _MacLeod didn't answer immediately.

"Well, I was wondering when your getting your bum down to Joe's so I can talk to you in person." Methos recognized the clacking of the glass in the background as Joe getting ready for his days work. 

"Give me an hour. I'll meet you there."

"Alright see you then." With that he hung up. Methos shut his eyes again. Trying to rekindle the sleepiness that still lay on him. Then a couple minutes later that annoying ENT ENT ENT was sounding. Methos raised his arm up and smacked the phone so many times that he killed the phone. 

"Gods I hate telephones." He rolled over on his bed and sat up. The sun shined in his face. He squinted at it's brightness. "This is gonna be a long day."

~ OUTSIDE MUSEM~

Kera walked up the steps with great pride. She had had a great time with Adam last night. They had a wonderful dinner. Then they went to a dance club. Which she had to drag Him into. For the rest of the night the two danced until 3am. They were both tired. When she got dropped off at her place he gave her an unexpected kiss. He smelled of liquor so that must have been it. She looked at her watch. It was 9am. _Time what a useless thing. At least for us. _The kiss hung in her mind. It was like one of the kisses he gave back in the day. _So he did remember her._ She smiled at the epiphany. She walked up a couple more steps and she felt it. A buzz of another immortal. She couldn't place the immortal by the buzz. There are some techniques in which you can identify an immortal by their buzz. Over a millennia she had most of them down flat. But this one she never encountered before. She looked around at the people surrounding her. A woman who wore a gray suit came walking down the steps. She was obviously Arabian origin. The woman didn't sense her like anyone could. So she just wondered down the steps. Kera watched her as she passed. The woman gave one last look to the museum and gave a smile. She must have seen something she liked, or remembered, or? Kera ignored it and continued up the steps. People were in line waiting to get inside to its treasures. Kera was there to see a certain artifact. As she as she got to the door.

~JOE"S BAR~

MacLeod felt the old immortal as he entered the bar. He looked beat. Methos attire was the usual sweater with jeans and that long treanch coat hiding his sword. Joe was the first to speak.

"So how was last night?" Methos popped himself onto a stool.

"It was a night that will live in infamy and my body with it." Joe looked in shock. _Or horror, _he thought.

"You didn't?" Joe liked Kera very much. Methos studied in the question of _which way_. MacLeod sat down next to him. "Well?" Joe was getting angry. Methos was still pondering and his head gave a scream.

"Joe, calm down." MacLeod didn't know who this woman was but she ofly meant a lot to him. Methos looked up at MacLeod finally. His eyes told him that he was out very late doing something. "Well Methos what did you do?" MacLeod trying to figure out what had gotten the old man to look literally half dead.

"Well, um, I need a drink first." Joe wanted to know what happened so he got him one. Methos took a big gulp. He sat there studying it.

"So?" Joe looked at him. Whatever he had done he was going to tell him or he would ring it out of him. Methos looked around for something that was normally there. At least now a days.

"Where is she? I thought she would be here by now."

"She went to the museum." Joe rested a hand on the bar.

"And she didn't tell you anything?" Methos was stuck in the limelight. His mind remembering the music, the dancing.

"No, she told me to ask you." Methos set down the glass.

"All we did was have dinner, go dancing and go home. Not together!" Methos held his hands in the air innocently. "And that's all." Joe looked at him.

"Good. Because that is what she told me too."

"Than why did you put the spotlight on me?" Methos response was nerved at what Joe had just done.

"Because she told me to. And said I would enjoy it. And I did." Joe gave a smile at him. Methos gave him an annoyed look back.

"Smart girl." MacLeod coined as he turned on the TV. The first scene that popped on was a burning building.

"Nobody knows what set off the explosion today at The Seacover Museum." The TV announcer announced. "People who were in the building at the time were either killed or severely wounded. Some spectators who where outside of the museum are mostly wounded. There is help coming…" Methos looked over to Joe.

"Joe what museum was she going to?" Joe looked at the TV at the devastation. "Joe!?!"

"The Seacover Museum." He answered finally. Methos stood up and ran to the door.

"Are you coming?" He said very anxiously. MacLeod grabbed his jacket. And Joe came following behind. 

"There are no lead at this time who has committed this devastation. Now back to your movie." The TV announcer said. 

****

TO BE CONTINUED

'WINTER IN JULY' by: Sarah Brightman

Look around wonder why**Future dreams can never last**And we may not know

We can live a life that's never satisfied.**When you find yourself still**the reason why.

Lonely hearts troubled minds**living in the past.**We're born into this

Looking for a way that we can **Keep moving on to higher ground**world

Never find.**Looking for the way you**Where a man only lives

Many roads are ahead of us**thought could not be found.**To die

With choices to be made.**We may not know the reason why** and his story

But life's just one of the **we're born into this world**left untold.

Games we play.**Where a man only lives to die**So make the best of

There is no special way.**His story left untold.**What's given you.

Make the best of what's given you**Make the best of what's given you**Everything will come in time

Everything will come in time **everything will come in time**why deny yourself

Why deny yourself**why deny yourself** don't just let life pass

Don't just let life pass you by**don't let life pass you by** You by Like winter in July.

Like winter in July.**Like winter in July.**


End file.
